Caption: PHENIX detector. Close-up of the collision point at the centre of the PHENIX (Pioneering High Energy Nuclear Interaction eXperiment) detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), Brookhaven National Laboratory, New York, USA. At right and left are the copper 'nose-cones', with the beryllium beam pipe at centre, with carbon fibre support structures (black). The RHIC particle accelerator began operating in 2000. The PHENIX detector is designed to help understand the quark-gluon plasma (QGP), a state of matter in the early universe after the Big Bang. Different particles detected include photons, electrons, muons, and hadrons. Photographed in 2011.